A few days early, probably because of what appeared to be leaks, the Star Trek Beyond trailer has landed. View below:

People who know me understand that I’m not fond of the reboot movies (my review of Star Trek Into Darkness is here), but with Abrams’ departure from the franchise and the news that Simon Pegg was writing the script, I was at a point of looking forward to this one.

But based on this trailer? I’m not happy at all. Beastie Boys as the background track wasn’t the best start, but, with the film’s compressed production schedule, I wouldn’t be surprised if the score wasn’t complete enough yet to take excerpts from. It wasn’t the music that grated though, it was the fact that the trailer felt almost completely empty. Just a succession of loud visuals with no context, including what looks like the Enterprise being dismantled by a swarm in scenes very reminiscent of the Machines’ attack on Zion in The Matrix Revolutions. There was one moment I liked; that being the “Well that’s just typical,” moment (0:40 to 0:50), but then again I have a soft spot for Urban’s McCoy in these reboot films.

(As an aside, once again, we appear to have the Enterprise effortlessly overcome. I know; needing to take characters from their comfort zone, writers / designers wanting something new, blah blah blah. Tired of it. At least have the enemy work for it for once? Please?)

I’m hoping that the second trailer will add some context to the flat noise of the first, or perhaps I’m just not the kind of the Star Trek fan Paramount is interested in marketing to these days.

So I finally watched “Into Darkness” today. I was going to wait until it was on Netflix, as I didn’t want to specifically spend money to see it, but my wife’s love of Benedict Cumberbatch drove her to the nearest Redbox to rent it.

I was already fully versed in the plot, so I concentrated more on the performances and dialogue. Best was Urban, followed by Quinto. Same as the first film, really. Everyone else felt underused. Pegg/Scotty was used much less as comic relief this time, but still not great. Cumberbatch was adequate and villainous in the role, but his performance doesn’t disguise that it’s a whitewashed piece of casting. Saldana had a couple of decent moments, but could have been more, and Eve was sadly little more than eye-candy.

When I compare it to Pacific Rim, which I love immensely, it comes up short in many ways. Del Toro’s film was a labour of love; Abrams’ effort felt like a cynical exercise in fan exploitation (right the way down to quoting verbatim lines from Wrath of Khan). It’ll never happen, but Pacific Rim’s creative team would do a far better job of expressing the fundamental humanity of Roddenberry’s creation because something closely akin to it was very much on display; it’s one of the reasons why I’m such a kaiju groupie.

Recalling the last thing Khan says to Admiral Marcus — “You should have let me sleep!” — I can’t help but think that Abrams should have done the same with the Star Trek franchise.